NY Premiere For Long-Lost Orson Welles Silent Film

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A long-lost Orson Welles silent film will have its U.S. premiere next week in the upstate New York city where it was restored.

"Too Much Johnson" was found recently in Pordenone in northern Italy, and it is making its public debut there on Wednesday. The film makes its U.S. debut next Wednesday at Rochester's Dryden Theater at the George Eastman House, where experts restored the 35 mm nitrate work print of the film.

Welles filmed it 75 years ago to be part of a stage play of the same name. He never finished the movie, which stars Joseph Cotten in the lead role. The play opened without the film in August 1938 and flopped.

The silent film predated Welles' first full-length film, "Citizen Kane," released in 1941.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.